Catholic bishops have appealed to the Government to extend energy-cost supports to churches and parish halls as they grapple with the prospect of “drastic closures” due to soaring heating costs.
In a statement issued following a meeting in Maynooth, the hierarchy noted the financial support in Budget 2023 for households, businesses, sports organisations and voluntary organisations facing rapid inflationary energy costs.
However, there was nothing for community facilities that are not grant-aided, such as parish centres, community halls and church buildings.
Many small local groups including scouts, mother and baby clubs and active retirement groups avail of parish facilities for meetings.
According to the bishops, church buildings are also often used in winter by the homeless and vulnerable to keep warm and safe.
“With soaring heating costs, the numbers seeking to spend part of their day in such settings can be expected to rise dramatically.
“However, the related energy costs are also rising rapidly to the point where it is difficult to see how drastic closures can be avoided,” they said.
“To address this dilemma, we urge Government to make assistance available so that these vital community resources can remain open on a sustainable basis throughout this stressful period, and to offer grant support to equip such facilities to be more energy-efficient in the future.”
Speaking to the Irish Independent, Bishop Michael Router said that people and parishes were facing a “miserable” winter.
“It is possible that churches may have to close their doors except when there are services going on.
“A lot of parishes have parish halls and parish facilities and they possibly won’t be able to heat them and may have to close them down in order to save money,” he warned.
This double whammy was leaving the 1,300 parishes across Ireland facing “a perfect storm”, Dr Router warned.
“Most parishes are struggling in the wake of the pandemic and a fall-off in income that hasn’t really recovered since the pandemic.
“Church attendances have not gone back to pre-Covid figures because there has been a certain reluctance among the cohort that do support the church, which would be predominantly the elderly age groups, to come back. There is still a fear of the virus, particularly coming into the winter.”
He said that with heating costs rising by 50pc, “a lot of parishes will certainly have to make severe cutbacks”.
At the same time, the bishops have encouraged parishes to respond to the cost-of-living crisis by using parish facilities, where possible, to host food banks and “warm banks” for those who are homeless or cannot heat their homes.
He told the Irish Independent that parishes could offer a warm space for an hour or two during the day, particularly after mass in the morning, which would be predominantly attended by an older group of people, and this might help them cut back on their own bills.
“But if we are going to be able to do this we need to get assistance with energy bills in parishes.
“So we are calling on the Government to consider giving some aid at least for the worst of the winter months.”
In the first phase of the pandemic, St Mary of the Angels Church in Dublin, which is run by the Capuchins, opened its doors to the homeless, who ate their meals in the pews of the church because they had nowhere to go with the closure of homeless cafes and food centres.